Customization questions..

[surge]

Another item to checkoff in my list of things that would help me move from MCE to Sage is the ability to customize Sage.

How easy or difficult is it to do in Sage?

I've created my own addon for MCE for some of the basic functions of MisterHouse (home automation). MCE gives you 2 slots on the Main screen and I've used one of these slots to take me directly to my MisterHouse screen.

My addon is simply a handful of webpages which follow the MCE standards for look and feel.

Are addons essentially the same thing or are they more involved?
Could I add a direct link to the main screen of an existing theme?
I've installed "SageMC16x9 Version 6.x Full Install Package" and would like to add my link to its main screen.

If I can do this, would the link simply go to a webpage? Or do I need to use "SageTV Studio"

thanks.

[GKusnick]

SageTV screens are not HTML pages. Use Studio to create new screens.

There is a Studio manual and a set of tutorials; see Appendix L of the SageTV Manual for links. There's also a Studio sub-forum here for questions on how to create customizations.

[surge]

Thanks for the quick answers.

Unfortunately, the Studio is only available to licensed users and I'm currently using the trial, so without being able to try out Studio, is this something a non programmer could accomplish?

thanks.

[GKusnick]

Studio isn't a typical sort of programming environment, but for my money Studio development counts as programming. Certainly some background in fundamental programming concepts (variables, statements, conditional branching, etc.) would be helpful in tackling the Studio learning curve, but I believe non-programmers have done it before with some success.

To some extent it depends on what you mean by "non-programmer". If you can write HTML code using VBScript or JavaScript, that's a kind of programming, and some of those concepts will carry across to Studio. But even for skilled programmers, the Studio programming model is different from what most people are familiar with and takes some getting used to.

One way to gauge your own level of competence might be to read through the Studio manual to see if the ideas there make any sense at all to you. You could also try looking at some of the existing threads in the Studio forum to see what sorts of questions Studio newbies are asking.

[surge]

Is there a way to at least call web pages and perform simple navigation?
I need to call pages that are on a separate machine which runs PERL.

Also if we can run view simple web pages, we would be able to use pages made for Media Center. There are a tons out there, but the one I use most is for XM Radio. here's a screenshot of the XM interface.

[GKusnick]

Sage does not natively have the ability to render HTML pages as part of its UI. You can launch an external web browser or HTML viewer from a Sage menu item, and use Hip or Girder or something similar to navigate it with your remote. There's been talk in the past of a third-party effort to embed a simple web browser in the Sage UI window, but I don't think that ever went anywhere. Search the forum for "embedded web browser" if you're curious.

But the bottom line is that there's no simple way to incorporate existing HTML code into the Sage UI. Your best bet for a seamless user experience is to recode the screens you want in Studio. For better or worse, Studio is the language of Sage UI design, so that's what you're going to have to work with if you want to customize or extend the UI.

[jpme]

I see Sage natively supports video genres now via directory structures. Not a very good solution, unfortunately, because multiple genres would be messy at best.

A better solution might be to acquire genre from imdb data (or hand edit if necessary) into a properties or .my file. Perhaps a comma delimited list of genres like: "Action, Adventure" or "Romance, Comedy". Then support the ability to list movies by any Genre that matches. So, a movie that has two genres listed would appear in both genre lists.

I didn't see this in any customization so far. Any take as to how difficult or possible it would be to do this as a studio customization? I may take a stab at it if not too involved (never tries to 'program' in studio before)?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by jpme

I see Sage natively supports video genres now via directory structures. Not a very good solution, unfortunately, because multiple genres would be messy at best.

A better solution might be to acquire genre from imdb data (or hand edit if necessary) into a properties or .my file. Perhaps a comma delimited list of genres like: "Action, Adventure" or "Romance, Comedy". Then support the ability to list movies by any Genre that matches. So, a movie that has two genres listed would appear in both genre lists.

I didn't see this in any customization so far. Any take as to how difficult or possible it would be to do this as a studio customization? I may take a stab at it if not too involved (never tries to 'program' in studio before)?

SageMC 16x9 handles genres from the tags of either DVD Profiler or IMDB. Genre is one of the built in views in it.

Gerry